Glad to see this. We really do need to get rid of bad class action lawsuits. Class Action Lawsuits are mostly an atrocious, disgusting, abuse of the legal system...and a shame to the US.
We've done quite a bit to curtail the poisonous CA suits, recently...which gives me a little bit of hope.
It won't. Where did you hear that it would kill all of them? I read nothing in there that can kill all of them. There's still a large body not blocked by this decision: damage (physical), risk of damage, or damage via proxy. I'm not even covering the half of it because I'm not a lawyer.
There's quite a bit of Class Action suit types not covered by this. What this ruling does is block claims which have to be "money". That's things like not being paid enough, illegal fees, etc. That's a really good thing. What did people get in the past? A $5 check? Free mascara? (Those are actual references to Class Actions cases. 10 points go Gryffindor if you can guess which "recent" cases those were from.)
From what Scalia wrote it seems that businesses will now be allowed to add a line to contracts that says you can't be part of a class action suit against the company, which previously would not have held up in court. No company will not include such a clause.
But even if it were limited to money do you really not see a problem with, for example, Apple cheating 20 million people out of $50 each and them having no real recourse since their claims are too small to care about individually?
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The individual did not lose the ability to sue...even a little bit.
The difference?
Each individual will be responsible for obtaining their justice. This means that we will not see gift certificates or free mascara for the individuals and lawyers take home millions to tens of millions of dollars. Instead, those who actually care can pursue and obtain the $50, if they legally deserve it. Most people don't care.
Who gives a shit if it's a waste of money? The Federal Government has no ****ing problem with spending like 10 million dollars on creating a case to try to throw Barry Bonds' black ass in jail. At the very least, petty class action lawsuits, regardless of how petty, can result in companies losing tons o tons of money, which is always a good thing as it keeps them (just a tad in most cases) humble. Is that less noble then lustfully pursuing black athletes, or 60 billion a month blowing up arabs in the middle east?
Honestly, on the totem pole this is just a waste of time. Our gov't really has bigger shit to worry about then CALS, imo.
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Last edited by Tzeentch on Apr 28th, 2011 at 01:32 PM
Class action lawsuits mainly benefit the attorneys, rather than the plaintiffs, but also have the positive effect of punishing corporations who behave improperly. This is yet another ruling by this supreme court that is going to kill the country.
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Not legally, no, but for practical purposes it becomes impossible. No one will take the case because they're all too small. It allows for massive acts of fraud that won't be effectively and in fact cannot be punished by the courts without grinding them to a halt with hundreds of thousands of cases.
That's bad.
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Graffiti outside Latin class.
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
A juvenal prank.
Last edited by Symmetric Chaos on Apr 28th, 2011 at 04:05 PM
That is certainly a large part of the problem with the outcome of this descision.
RE: Blaxican, the opinion that the government has better things to do is not relevant.
As when Justice Alito mouthed his dissent at the President's comments during the State of the Union, there is a disconnect with reality for these justices some times. When the supreme court ruled that corporations could contribute to political campaignes as individuals, it was an effort to destabalize, counter and undermine the influence of unions on politics. Now we see what is going on in places like Wisconsin. These are erosions of liberties for every American individual, in favor of the rights of the corporate entity.
While most class-action lawsuits are shit, as the lawyers take far more than the lion's share of the profits, CAL allow the little guy a chance to challenge the corporations.
Do you really think you'd get anywhere by yourself trying to sue say a large insurance company for overcharging you for the last 5 years? No, you wouldn't, you'd spend more than was worth and you'd likely get nowhere. With a CAL, you at least can hope to get refunded for the overcharges.
Wow, you guys really don't get it at all. This means that corporations are now officially ABOVE the law since they can stipulate that plaintiffs must go into PRIVATE ARBITRATION which consumers always lose because those boards are always stacked with a revolving door of corporate cronies and corruption is rampant. 5-4 nothing. 4 of those conservative justices can easily be impeached and possibly even do some time for bribery among other things.
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That aside, how is it not relevant? It was relevant to DDM's point, which was that most class action lawsuits are usually a waste of money and, therefore, bad.
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"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
Last edited by Tzeentch on Apr 29th, 2011 at 01:41 AM
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Apr 28th, 2011 01:51 AM
